Two men ticketed on suspicion of campaign sign stealing in Superior

SUPERIOR -- Two men have been ticketed on suspicion of stealing political campaign signs in Superior.

Cmdr. Rick Brough, of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, said Justin Chipman and Justin Hagen, both of Superior, were issued misdemeanor theft citations after witnesses reported them taking signs from the side of the road. Chipman was cited Oct. 18, and Hagen received his ticket Wednesday, Brough said.

Both men will have to appear in Superior Municipal Court and could face a fine of up to $499 and up to 180 days in jail.

The citations come after more than 100 political signs disappeared around town earlier in the month. It's not known if Hagen and Chipman are connected to those larger thefts.

Brough said both men gave deputies similar reasons for lifting the signs out of the ground.

"(Chipman's) rationale was it was public property, and it was littering," he said. "What (Hagen) said was he was just trying to abate an eyesore."

Attempts to reach the men for comment were unsuccessful this week.

Steve Smith, a write-in candidate for the Superior Board of Trustees, said he and his son were driving down McCaslin Boulevard on Wednesday when they saw a man taking signs out of the ground on Rock Creek Parkway.

"I yelled out the window, 'Put these signs back.' He said, 'I'm doing this for the town.' I said, 'No, you're not,'" Smith said.

Advertisement

He said the man appeared to be an equal opportunity sign-stealer, with an Obama sign, a couple of Romney signs and two Superior trustee signs in the back of his vehicle. Smith's son snapped a picture of the man holding a couple of the pilfered signs, and Smith called the Sheriff's Office.

"I think people stealing these signs are really giving Superior a bad name," said Smith, who has lost about 35 of his own campaign signs. "I think it's wrong for people to take it upon themselves to decide what is visual pollution."

Trustee Debra Williams, who lost 71 signs in a heist Oct. 9, said she wouldn't be surprised if more people are eventually caught stealing signs or are connected to past incidents of theft.

Williams said she wished the sanction for stealing signs was more severe than misdemeanor theft. She considers the crime an act of political interference, especially in a small town where candidates rely heavily on their signs to get their names into voters' minds.

Local duo joining overseas exhibition excursionFilippo Swartz went to Italy, where his mother was born and he spent the first year or so of his life, every summer until he had to stick around to be a part of summer football activities for the Longmont High School team. Full Story

MacIntyre says the completed project will be best in Pac-12There were bulldozers, hard hats, mud, concrete trucks, blueprints, mud, cranes, lots of noise and, uh, mud, during the last recruiting cycle when Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre brought recruits to campus. Full Story

Most people don't play guitar like Grayson Erhard does. That's because most people can't play guitar like he does. The guitarist for Fort Collins' Aspen Hourglass often uses a difficult two-hands-on-the-fretboard technique that Eddie Van Halen first popularized but which players such as Erhard have developed beyond pop-rock vulgarity.
Full Story